


Champions

by Innocentfighter



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Death, Gen, M/M, Personification of Death, Star Trek Beyond, Third Person POV, beyond spoilers, brief mention of everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-27 16:08:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7625119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innocentfighter/pseuds/Innocentfighter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The universe favored some, that was a simple understood rule. Sometimes the favored ones get visits. James T. Kirk and Leonard McCoy have both been watched since they were young by universal constants. These are some of the visits they were paid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. James Kirk and Death

**Author's Note:**

> It was going to be a five and one, but it turned into a seven time and none, so. Anyway I have the other part to write tomorrow. And that’ll be fun. But otherwise enjoy this one!

Death was hard. For as long as there had been life, there had been a need for her. She had seen many empires rise and fall throughout the galaxy. Many lives had been welcomed into her embrace. As cold as it was.

In the beginning she had not wished to do her job. Why should loving families be ripped apart because of one man’s lust for power? But she had looked upon those faces, those tortured souls that writhed and shouted for relief. It had made her realize that all life was precious yes, but her counterpart was the one that brought it to fruition. Her job, was merely to pave way for life.

Many, many, millennia had passed and not since those early years had she hesitated in taking lives. No one escaped her for very long, second chances were only because she was too slow. Miracles of battle they would call them.

Then she met one particular man that stood in her path and laughed.

 

1.

She had been called into space, a large number of lives were about to be lost. Starship crews were often bountiful harvests, the mortals truly unaware of how much danger there was. How powerless they truly were. Newborn colts in a thunderstorm..

Death could not predict the paths of men. It was only a tug that would let her know of mass death. And so she would appear at the sight. The time she stood next to the Captain of the nearby starship. The mortal should be honored she claimed him herself. Names were unimportant to her, just as the man ruining the timeline was.

The captain’s soul was weary and grayed. A sign of a man who wanted to experience more but never could. He was sent on his way, to whatever afterlife he wished.

None of the aggressors felt like they would die soon so she moved towards the other ship.

Death could tell that a new life was about to come into existence. Curiously bad timing on the babe’s behalf. The man at the helm was interesting, he stood steady in the onslaught. His desperation, if he felt it, was well hidden. He’d be taken by her personally as well.

Then, he changed everything. He pushed himself into that ship to save the rest of the mortals. The 800 souls she could feel nearing the end vanished off of her radar. The man had succeeded.

Four lives were set to expire before this man, and so Death went to them. It was the shuttle with the babe on it. Looking out of the window she could see two torpedo’s arcing towards them, one on a collision course with the other. The babe wailed, and she made the mistake of looking at him.

In her existence, she had never seen a soul so strong in one so young. Its colors mixed in mingled, and looked like a nebula. The child stopped it’s noise making and looked straight at her.

For a moment, in those minute old eyes, she thought she saw a challenge. It had taken her by surprise and she willed these death’s not to happen out of instinct.

She was curious to see who this child grew up to be. It was selfish of her because she knew what the price for those who escaped death was/ Even if she allowed it. _James Tiberius Kirk._

His father’s countdown was drawing nearer, and she could not let this hero be claimed by one of her reapers. Not after producing young like this. Her resolved to take him to the gates personally was strengthened.

James’ life would only be a second of hers, but she could not let it pass her by.

 

2.

After letting him live the first time, Death vowed that she would not let him escape the next. His life was too hard for one so young, and often she wondered if she made the right choice letting that shuttle go.

Then she remembered the soul of James and the soul of his father. George’s had been a brilliant gold entwined with the metallic baby blue of Winona’s. Over the years she had seen the mother’s soul turn to gray, and there had been many times Death was waiting to sweep her up in her arms only to be fought back.

When she made her vow to let James die the second that she met him again, she was not expecting it to be only eleven years later. She sighed and waited to see how the young one was going to meet his death.

The car would slide off and into the quarry taking James with it. Death could feel the pull to die roll off of him. Her scythe stood ready, but she did not. What harm could she bring to the boy if she gave him a little push to live?

It was not directly saving him, her attempt may even fail. She blew on her palm and dancing butterflies faded into the worn leather jacket.

James was jumping out of the car and sliding, he would not make it. Death lent down and stopped the slide by placing her hands over the boy’s wrist. Her touch would mean an early death for the youth. In that moment of contact she could not regret it.

As brightly as the boy shone, still shone even with the hardship, it was his warmth that got to her. Death was perpetually cold but this unbreakable spirit warmed her hand however briefly.

She did not regret saving James Tiberius Kirk that day either.

Death laughed and he puffed up his chest and proudly spoke his name. Somehow she heard George laughing along with her.

The boy turned and looked at her again, not at her but near enough and smirked. As if he remembered that challenge to her as a babe. He was not scared of death, he embraced it.

She grinned.

 

3.

Her wish to not see James so soon after his last brush with her went unanswered. His presence, barely a flicker, in her mind was still enough to let her know that his was not his final stand.

Death had thought that maybe, there was a grand scheme to this, and whoever created her saw something in the bright boy that she could not.

But though James stood in that courtyard and Kodos spoke, and how Death loathed his kind; those who take and take and do not face their consequences for years. They were the men she wished that she could take and trade with an innocent soul.

That was not the case and she went around guiding the terrified souls, stained a deep red-violet to their rest. Peering over the faceless blips of life she caught sight of startling blue. _Eyes._

They quickly gave way to a spinning nebula and she knew who it was that saw her. Maybe it was in a tangible form. Some mortals were like that, special enough to see her and her counterpart (though that was rarer still).

James would likely be among those privileged to see the face of their demise. He should be honored.

Death lingered for months there, slowly guiding and embracing souls that had succumbed to injury or starvation. Slow deaths were always her least favorite, knowing that they would soon perish but see them make feeble grasps for her counterpart.

Begging and pleading and bargaining and threatening. A messy ugly thing it was. When James’ time came, would he be the same. Would he fight... or lay down his sword?

Death found her answer sooner than she would’ve liked.

Her charge, for that’s what he would become, had been captured trying to save other children. Keep them alive and safe and stupid of what death truly was. A kind act that went with his warm soul.

Kodos, and she would enjoy ripping his soul from his body (there was a reason they said death was painless, she didn’t want any more distress because of her, but sometimes it needed to be done hard or fast), had taken James and tortured him.

A boy of fourteen forced to endure it, with cheap medical tricks to keep him alive. Without much thought she appeared before him, ready to catch his soul and release him from this pain.

James however once more looked at her, a fierceness that lit up his eyes in a way that was ethereal. He growled, his voice rough from screams, the first words she had ever had spoken at her by a mortal.

“Not yet.”

Death saw his soul light up in a way that burned and it practically went supernova with his willpower. That day she did not allow James Tiberius Kirk to live.

She had been scared away.

 

4.

James had not gone near Death’s domain for many years. She estimated that it had been a little under a decade. Something told her that another had stepped in, someone who was more suited for a charge of his nature. Death wondered who it could be.

But one day she ran into him. She was busy collecting the souls from the academy, and she will gladly take the soul of that romulan he has ruined enough of her counterpart’s plan, when a ship stopped next to her briefly. The distress of them intrigued her, and so she ghosted onto the bridge.

Only to see James looking at her directly. His lips curled and she smirked, for a deal was struck. Then she looked to the man next to him, drawn to him similar to how she was drawn to James.

A startled noise passed her lips. The man, he had an aura of light around him shimmering gold and sprinkled with nebula. Of course that was the being that would take her charge.

She bowed gracefully and waited for her moment to take the romulan’s head.

James turned his attention back to the living.. Death walked past him with a gentle push to his back. He would not die this mission, nor would his crew.

The barest of the other timeline’s memories trickled into her head. She pushed them out, another from that timeline had returned. Another of her charges. She paused, tilting her head to examine the vulcan.

 _Normal_.

Death left with confusion.

 

5.

When she appeared in the conference room she found the seven that she would claim. She was disheartened to see that James’ mentor was among them. James, however was not, and on glance at his soul she could tell that he had suffered an emotional blow.

The supernova had dimmed back into a nebula, and she knew that he saw her. He stood up.

“Clear the room!”

Death clicked her tongue. As if it would change anyone’s fate now that she had shown up. Unless she chose to of course. James was not in danger neither was Spock, so she was content with the harvest.

However when it came time to take the mentor’s she was surprised to find it block by Spock’s meld. _What is your goal young one?_ But the volcano had been enough to let her know that his one, would not die this time around.

James ran up and upon seeing his mentor’s face his soul dimmed further. _Oh._

He did well, and she was proud of him. The life he had was not as great as she expected, and she almost regretted letting him live in that shuttle that day. But she knew that it was a universe effecting act now, the Enterprise had been its own force and it still is. That crew was not one she could take before their time.

But when that time came she’d welcome them as heroes.

Death stayed near James throughout the entirety of the incident. Wondering if he would brighten.

With each tick of the minute hand the nebula dimmed and dimmed.

Once she wondered if she would have to claim another of the crew. Leonard, she’d learned. But of course he was not a man she would be allowed to guide to the afterlife so soon. No, he was destined to die a long time from now, longer than he should have.

Death knew that James had figured out how this was going to end. He would look straight at her as he spoke. Like she was a ghost at the edge of his awareness. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, I only know what I can do.”

_Sacrificing yourself?_

In his last moments she stayed away from him. Observing as the brilliance faded as he completed his task. A bemused smile crossed her face when she saw the sparkling of gold in his soul.

Was it Leonard’s?

James told her when it was time for him to go. A flicker of his eyes to her, away from Spock; who she glanced at. His pain was tangible, and she could see the smattering of red in the otherwise blue-green soul. _A perfect match, hm._

Death offered her hand to the soul and James took it readily.

“So this is what you truly look like?”

“To you perhaps. It has been a long time since I knew my true form,” she tugged his hand, “follow James.”

“How nice,” he muttered, “you know my name.”

“I do not know many mortals names, James.”

That quieted him. Her head tilted on its own, how strange. This man who had scared her away once, walking in tandem with her to his rest.

“I’m tired.”

Death nodded. Many souls were.

* * *

She startled once, and shifted into the spot of the disturbance. Her lips parted. James was looking around, joking with Spock and Leonard.

An impossibility. Death looked to Leonard to see his soul was still a pool of liquid gold and stars. To confirm she looked at Spock, his soul was blue-green, a shade lighter but no other change.

Swallowing she looked back at James. His soul had become a nebula of gold, the other colors remained, but her own gray gradient was washed out.

With more feeling than she would care to name she would step back away from the one named Kirk. He was no longer her charge, but a soul to be harvested at the right time.

Death had toed the line for this mortal too many times already.

 

6.

Being called to Yorktown was unexpected until she saw the wave of ships advancing. Death leapt to the top of a statue to watch. Wait and see who it was she was meant to claim.

For fifteen minutes there was no indication. Then a ship that she had not seen in many years appeared. That crew, aside from a few, had died just as long ago.

It struck her now that she had not gone to claim those few. Their deaths had not been told to her. She pursed her lips, the Frontier as it was called often yielded things that extend lifespans. To her it was cheating, but it was declared fair play by her and her counterpart. If a mortal was willing to pay that price the could have those few more years.

Krall, as he would like to be called now, tried to kill Kirk. She sat in the gravity chamber watching them fight and struggle. It would entertain her, both of them were going to die.

Death missed the days that she was protecting Kirk instead of letting him fight his fate. He looked straight through her this time, and she knew, whatever his next death was, it would be the final one.

They were flying towards space, and she was following alongside them. Taking Krall’s soul would be nice, a too long lived human’s soul was always hard to extract whole. Kirk’s was still a gold nebula.

As she reached out for him. Leonard and Spock grabbed him first. For a few moments of petty irritation she tugged on Kirk, seeing if she could shake Spock’s grip.

A presence started to form and she let go readily. That was not a conflict that she would have today, or any day.

Despite her curiosity to see what the boy will become. She vows the next time that she sees him he will die and she will take his soul.

It's not vengeful, no, she can see the strain that her presence is putting on his soul, and if she wants to give him however many years he has left, then this will be his last near death experience.

Death faded away, a promise on her lips.

 

7.

As she vowed that time the last time that she would see James would be at his death. Which she was surprised took longer than even Leonard’s, who had died earlier than they all expected (but to no one's surprise). The rest of the Enterprise had already passed into her embrace, and she could tell that the spirits of the crew were waiting for their final two members.

Spock had several more decades of natural life to go. But James... it was his time.

He was saving the world on last time, with a man named Picard. He had taken over the Enterprise. She sat on the structure that would eventually claim the life she sought.

It was unfortunately not a quick death. Fast enough he did not need to say his goodbyes to people he barely knew, but slow enough that she could watch that soul (beautiful golden nebula) fade and caress his face.

She grinned as she felt the warmth race up her arm. So he was still the kind boy she had saved from the quarry.

James looked at her, “You’re back.”

“Even you must die, James,” she sat next to him. Perhaps he would give some sort of confession.

“My crew,” he rasped, “are they...”

“They are waiting for you. It's been 78 years James. Pavel was the latest one, only 45 years ago. Spock still has a little time to wait however,” she answered.

“And did they all live happily?” He looked frantic.

“They lived, and there were happy times. Your... disappearance was one thing they could not get over. Leonard, he was the first to go, not to anyone’s surprise really. Caught a strain of the disease he was working to cure...” she trailed off.

“Not as careful as he could’ve been,” James finished for her.

Death stood up, dusting off her clothing, a cloud was coming over the sun. It’d be a perfect way to end his life.

She reached out her hand, and once more he took it without hesitation. James nodded, already looking past her, at something she was not at liberty to see. He would go on his own. Walking the road with no one but himself.

Death kissed his brow and let him face his own version of death.

The golden nebula would haunt her for eternity.


	2. Leonard McCoy and Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so it took a little longer than I thought I would, but it is longer than I thought that it would be. So please enjoy.

Life had been around since the beginning, only existing seconds before his counterpart was created. He had been at the the front of every civilization flourishing. Many great mortals had been born before him.

His existence was one he relished. Able to breath life into the weak and weary. To watch as his gift was used to nurture and nourish others, for him there was no greater reward.

For many millennia he had his champions, born with his blessing. Those mortals grew into ones that saved countless others. They would use their gift and he would let them. Their only benefit of being his champions were that they usually had a longer than average life span.

Whether it was his doing or their own knowledge that prolonged them he did not know. All were claimed by his counterpart eventually.

He made it a point to visit those who would be his champions up their birth. Sometimes their births were not when they first breathed, but later in life.

Usually only a few beings could be his champion at time, and they never came into contact. He should’ve suspected it when he met his newest champion.

 

1.

He first met Leonard on the day of his birth. The boy had an unusually quick gestation time, a sure sign of his blessing. Life settled down in the room where Eleanora McCoy was giving birth. The child’s father was the one delivering his son.

Life looked outside to see that it would be an usually warm January day, like spring had come early. He wondered if it was because of this child’s birth. Though that could not be, not even his greatest champion could do this.

The babe was born at the edge of dawn and in only a few seconds was showing off his impressive lung capacity. At first, Life thought that he had made a mistake, and this was not the child meant to be his champion.

Then the babe’s soul blossomed into the shimmering gold he had learned marked his charges. It was the brightest soul he had seen and Leonard even had the aura of a healer around him.

In one so young, Life couldn’t help but think that this child would do great things. Save many lives. He peered the tiniest bit into the boy’s future and saw the earth symbol for medic.

Life would watch this child grow and see what he does with his gift. He leaned against the wall as the family gathered for the first time. Leonard looked straight at him.

He smiled back.

 

2.

Life had been deeply unsettled by his counterpart’s interference with one child. James Tiberius Kirk. He could not tell what the other meant to do with the boy. The result of her actions would fill his life full of hardships.

No one was meant to cheat death.

Wondering what his own earthbound champion was up to he wandered over to the lake in Georgia the McCoys were all so fond of. David’s family was a long line of healers, each of them having that soft white aura marking them as such. But Life had no interest in them, it laid with Leonard.

At seventeen he had already applied to study at a university and had been excepted. He was going to be a surgeon. The gold soul had grown only more vivid throughout the years and the healer’s aura had as well. Looking at him was nearly blinding these days.

It happened in slow motion, or so he assumed it did for the humans, where two humans on watercraft were on a collision course. Life could see that this would be a fatal for at least one of the boaters, but he could not tell who. A reaper was coalescing. He turned his head, pursing his lips, part of him wanted to confront his counterpart, see what she was made of, but that was not a fight that he wished to have today.

The crash sounded causing the group to look out to the water. Leonard was the only one that reacted right away. Sneakers went flying through the air one of which nearly hitting \Life in the face as he dived towards the accident.

He tilted his head. Wondering what his champion was planning on doing. Even if the reaper hadn’t formed fully, there was nothing that could save the one that was dying. Leonard had to make the right call. His curiosity got the better of him and he flitted out to the site of the crash.

Only two people had been involved, a woman and a man. He knew which one was going to die soon. It would be a hard call to make, both victims were splashing in the water, which was running red with blood. Leonard reached them soon after.

For a few seconds there was something undefinable in the youth’s eyes. Life leaned foreward. Leonard then reached for the woman and wrapped her so that she was secure on his back for the swim back.

“Can you tread water?” Leonard asked the man.

“Yes.”

Satisfied Leonard went back to shore, his form steady and the woman barely moved from her spot. Life landed back on the shore. Surprised that in the heat of the moment his champion had still made the right call on who was the more seriously injured.

“Can someone go out and get him?” The voice came out steady.

He watched as the youth attempted to keep the woman stable, with a quickly procured med-kit. His father, a trauma surgeon was at his side doing the same thing. Another called for a medical escort, and his mother had swam out to reach the man.

The reaper was leaning against his staff with an eyebrow raised. Clearly he did not want to intrude on Life’s domain. Around his champion. It was a nice gesture.

When the woman’s soul faded to gray for just a second the reaper stepped forward and Life moved back. Leonard looked up sharply, first at him and then at the reaper. He knew that he could not be seen by mortals, and the reaper was invisible to all but a select few. The look had startled him, like the youth had known he was being watched.

His champion turned back to the woman, whose lips were turning blue.

“Dammit, you’re not dying today,” and Leonard had begun chest compressions.

His father was doing something with a hypospray. It was not the act of medical science that saved this woman’s life. The reaper suddenly vanished in a chilly breeze as the woman convulsed and gasped. Her life force returning and her soul coming back to that rosy white it had been.

Life raised a brow. Leonard had saved that woman when no one else could’ve. He had fought for her life harder than she had been. While it wasn’t unknown for healers to fight as hard as they could the patients will was always stronger.

Not in this case. His champion had looked at a reaper straight on (Life knew that he saw as it was meant to be seen by humans) and spat in its face. He was a force death could not touch on this day.

It was a dangerous thing, but somehow Life knew that Leonard would get used to his patients pulling through the impossible to live and breath another day.

He would watch from afar and see how far this Leonard McCoy would go to save someone.

 

3.

It was one of the worse sights in the multiverse to see someone run themselves down and nearly break trying to save someone else. A look that no one wore well. Life often wondered if Leonard treated it as a badge of honor, as if to say “this is what a man looks like when he goes toe to toe against Death.”

She had appeared a few times in Leonard's medical career. He had not been around to see it, but he knew that she had walked away empty handed. Like she was testing him for something. It was not something he could claim he was not guilty of, James Tiberius Kirk had been a point of intrigue to him and why his counterpart would take such an interest in him.

He knew now. That boy’s soul was as beautiful as anything he had ever seen. Life looked over to Leonard (who was bent over test results of some kind), that soul had been beautiful but not as bright as his Champion’s was.

Even though he had dimmed with the recent events of his life.

David McCoy had contracted a rare hereditary disease. The genes apparently skipped generations, in the other timeline Leonard and his daughter had lived their lives without it but not his grandchildren. This was the same. Life tilted his head, the results would not change and he knew the outcome of this part of Leonard’s life. Yet, he could not draw away. Watching his champion perform his destined task was something he could not look away from. It had turned into an art form. Many professors and colleagues had thought the same. 

Leonard’s soul may have dimmed, but his aura only grew stronger. Life leaned over to look at the results. They were a trial drug of some sort, one that had been on the clear for human testing only to have been blocked due to its side effects. It was too risky and the medical board had deemed it unfit.

It may have been David’s last hail mary. HIs soul was starting to turn the murky gray of a long suffering death. Leonard McCoy’s gold had dimmed into a wheat yellow. Life followed the young doctor around.

Medical procedures came to Leonard as breathing. He had never had a champion so well suited for being his champion. In the past they had all been heroes, rescuers of the broken, damned, and forgotten. Those who had suffered more than their life could handle and needed someone who would never show their cracks.

James Tiberius Kirk on Tarsus was a perfect example. His actions would’ve landed him as a champion had Death not already claimed him as a charge.

Life was fascinated. It was the longest he has spent at one mortal’s side. Days turned into weeks and those into months. It was nine months of suffering for Doctor McCoy, and one day Life was pulled away from him to see that his wife was in labor. She had her mother in the room, and Eleanora McCoy was in the waiting room, but Leonard was in the middle of a test that required all of his attention.

He wondered since Leonard was such a perfect champion if his child would be one as well.

Joanna McCoy was born on a fall afternoon with a rose colored soul. She would be a lover and she had an aura of gentleness, but she was no champion of his. But she could be a healer like her father. That he had no doubt.

Satisfied he returned to Leonard’s side, only to see the usually mild-tempered man throwing stuff across the room. His soul tinted with the red of anger and translucent gray of hopelessness. It turned the golden pool into something unrecognizable. Life realized that this may be the one thing that Leonard can’t recover from. Much like his other hadn’t for many years.

This Leonard was likely to be a far greater healer (the exact details of why unknown) but in exchange he had given up some of the strength the other universe had possessed.

There was no cure in sight and David McCoy was in constant pain from the disease. Leonard, ever the healer, continued to perform his tasks that the hospital required of him. The man always had a constant flow of patients, from mild to critical cases. Never once did he crack.

He paid the price when his wife, a woman with a cherry red soul and ambitious aura, gave him the papers of divorce. The conditions were harsh and Life winced, he should’ve known those chosen by the universe to be great weren’t allowed simple happinesses. But Leonard signed the marriage away, and his soul took on a further translucent shade. Gold still pooled at his center so Life remained.

Only eight days later David McCoy asked the impossible of his son: for him to be killed by Leonard. Life leaned against the wall. The man had only a few more days before the disease would ravage him and leave him nothing more than a spot of pain.

Life stilled as something else formed in the room. He knew her aura and he turned and looked. She was nothing more than a ghostly gray-white shade and he couldn’t make anything out from her form.

Her head tilted towards the two mortals and he could see her lips move in a smirk. He turned quickly back to his champion and David only to see Leonard had the hypo in his hand. Surprisingly it wasn’t shaking, no the hands wouldn’t shake that was the mark of an incompetent healer.

Leonard pressed the hypo to his father’s neck, and after another nod from David a soft hissing filled the air and the bio-bed beeped as the man breathed his last.

Death stepped forward and gripped the now vibrant green soul, only a little grayed and vanished.

His champion on the other hand fell to the side of the bed, his soul turned even more translucent and the gold a blip. 

Life frowned. Perhaps Leonard McCoy would not be the champion he was in this universe.

* * *

He was wrong of course. No person whose soul shined that brilliantly could lose his position in the universe’s favored. Leonard was only a little lost.

He followed the young doctor to the Riverside shipyard. The past few days had been rough on him, and going into an organization that would take him to what he feared most (there was no doubt Leonard was too skilled to not be put on that flagship) was proof of that.

Life had only stuck around to see if that golden pool would come back on its own or if there was something that would push out that translucent gray. Apparently he needed to not worry, on the shuttle was another of the universe’s favored. James Tiberius Kirk, his soul still a beautiful nebula of colors and a little translucent on the edges.

They would not notice it for perhaps years, but Life could already see the bleeding of themselves into the other. Different once more from how it had been. But he was glad that they had found each other at this point in this timeline.

 

4.

Life stood on the bridge of the Enterprise, it was only a shade of him instead of his usual full presence, but it would be enough to defend the mortals from death. He could see all of them confused and scared and a little unsure of what to do with themselves. A distress signal was nothing new to the fleet, but it was to them.

Really, it was a wonder no one jumped to the conclusion of a Romulan attack after Chekov specifically said “lightening storm in space.” Until he saw James Tiberius Kirk run through the door calling out for a stop and about the attack. These aggressor destroyed what would’ve been many good officers and there were some among them that would’ve made amazing advancements to the mortals. The universe was already different before Nero, however he was the one that changed most of what the plans were to something that only had a few key events shared.

Leonard was only seconds behind James. Life laughed loudly, distracting the doctor for a second. He knew it would be the case but seeing the proof was something that made him incredibly overjoyed. The once translucent gray soul had returned to its golden pool that seemed to shift and reveal a certain nebula.

The other’s was less pronounced, the nebula now had golden stars, but it was still claimed too much by Death to wear his mark fully. Someday that would have to change, it would be another thing righted in this universe.

Speaking of his counterpart he could tell that she was close by. She would not be able to see him, but it would be interesting to see her reaction. This crew would be off limits for her. Their lives would not change because of his interference because they were not cheating death.

Life spared another glance at James Tiberius. He was meant to die this time around, but he was standing firm. His life hadn’t been easy because of it, but his champion was contented with his companion and so he would do what he could to preserve that.

He only left when Death had.

 

5.

The distress is what called him to Leonard’s side this time. It was like it had been with David, only more acute. A sharper pain, one that would leave a permanent scar.

Life appeared next to his champion and saw what was hurting him so. James Tiberius Kirk was in a body bag, and there was no sign of his soul in sight. Even Leonard could do nothing against that.  Had there been a trace of life in his body then maybe something could’ve been done.

The doctor collapsed into a nearby chair. He walked over and rested a hand on Leonard's shoulder, the nebula’s seemed to twinkle before they began to gray. Those marks would not be quick to fade away, their hold on the soul was impressive. There would be no comfort for this, and he doubted that he would’ve been able to do a thing had he come earlier. Death was far too quick on the reaping this time around. 

A trilling sound filled the room and Life turned to it. To his surprise it made this noise despite not having a soul. Seconds later it began to light up in its original brown color; grayed in a way that he could tell was permanent.

An actual resurrection. Life could not believe this. He had no part in this and neither did his counterpart. This mortal was brandishing a sword at Death and he did not even know it.

Leonard was quick to figure out what was happening, and even quicker to move to save James Tiberius. He could not figure out if this mortal truly intended to break the oath the human healers hold so dear. Another look at the fading color told Life all he needed to know.

If Death was going to be challenge, and if Leonard won, he would take James Tiberius as his champion as well. The man should’ve been his to begin with.

The making of the serum was the hardest part to watch. It was worse than watching Leonard pour over countless test results for his father and experimental drugs. If he got this serum wrong the first time there would be no second chance. His soul would not survive another blow like his father. Life could see the cracks extending out from the spots of nebula.

Leonard did not think he would fail, and so Life watched and waited to see if the sword his champion brandished would be enough to push death back and have the soul return.

Of course that would be life’s job, to pull the soul back into his body. Leonard could heal the physical and emotional parts of things, but he could not put back what makes a living being themselves.

When James Tiberius Kirk was stable enough Life found that star-born soul and pulled it back down to his earthly vessel. Once the soul had accepted its body he made sure that he claimed him as a champion. Death could not and would not do anything to one of his.

It was the only time that he had directly interfered with the lives of mortals. He could not find the reason why.

 

6.

While Leonard was on the Enterprise during her five year mission, Life often visited. Just to watch the doctor work miracles. Saving people from the unknown just in the knick of time. His notoriety raised along with James Tiberius and the Vulcan first officer, and he became the foremost in frontier medicine.

His career was incredible. He saw how much help that Leonard brought to people. What he learned and how he applied it. Even performing some surgeries on the fly when time was short and there was no other option. Very few people died on his operating table.

Life already knew that this would be the case. No mortal born with a golden soul and healer’s aura would be anything less than the best in this field. There were times when people thought that there would need to be some sort of divine intervention to save a person and Leonard would just do it.

James Tiberius was correct in his joke once “You’re a miracle worker, not a doctor.”

He stepped back, proud to see his champion doing what he was born to do.

 

7.

His champions were always long lived and in good health. The previous Leonard McCoy continued working until he was 137 and then he spent the rest of his life as a consultant and a guide.

This reality was far more crueler. This Leonard lost his James Tiberius young. The Nexus, as it would later be named, claimed him decades before it did the other. Try as they might the Enterprise crew could not get him back.

It was hard Leonard, but he persevered. Until he was only the tiniest bit careless and ended up giving himself the disease he was trying to treat.

Life did not make a habit of visiting his champions the day they died. To often would he run into his counterpart, and they have met far too many times in this universe already. So instead he visits them just before the soul starts to gray.

The doctor was propped up on a bed, and for once there was not a crowd of well-wishers. He sat down on the end of the bed and rested his palm on Leonard’s foot. He spent hours looking at that golden pool. The nebula still spun around and was just as vivid, and the aura of the healer had not diminished even in these last few days.

The sickness had not yet taken his dignity. Life was glad of this. Leonard was a proud man but always acted humble. Seeing him in that state would not sit well with Life. He only wished that the doctor would be able to live longer and contribute more to the world. 

Thinking about it he realized that both Leonards had contributed the same amount of information. So perhaps, for the balance of things this would be for the best.

Life stood up. He had spent enough time with his greatest champion. There were others he should visit, new lives he should witness. Eventually the doctor would be reunited with the captain.

That made his passing a little easier to bear. No other soul would ever be a pool of gold and stars like this man’s. Life understood Death in that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Now to write something that's actually plot driven. Won't that be a nice change instead of all of these introspective pieces. But I enjoy writing them. So hey. Leave your thoughts below.

**Author's Note:**

> Holy shit? I actually think I did a really good job on this one? But hey, leave your comments below and let me know. Trust me the mckirk will be more apparent in the next issue, but I mean I thought I did a fairly nice job in this one alluding to it? But yeah, let me know your thoughts!


End file.
